Dutch States Army

The Dutch States Army was the army of the United Provinces from 1576 to 1795. The army was created in 1576 during the Dutch Revolt against Spain, during which the Dutch hired a mercenary army to fight against the Habsburg forces in the Spanish Netherlands. The Dutch leader William the Silent modelled the Dutch military after that of France, hiring French officers to help transition his army from a landsknecht-modelled army to a professional fighting force. In 1588, it had a mere 20,500 troops, but this grew to 62,000 in 1607; it reached its height in 1712 during the War of the Spanish Succession, during which it had 119,000 troops. From 1672 to 1673, Prince William of Orange transformed the Dutch States Army into a formidable force that could fight Louis XIV of France's powerful army to a standstill, but the Dutch would adopt a policy of armed neutrality after the War of the Spanish Succession, during which they suffered a horrible economic downturn in exchange for their British allies gaining from the victory and not them. In 1795, the Dutch States Army came to an end with the United Provinces, as the Batavian Republic replaced the stadtholders' republic.